Fieldnotes on Humanity

It has been almost a week since I arrived in the US. It is my first time setting foot in the US, a country that has boots on my country's soil. In other words, the US has set foot in my country before I set foot in the US. It is ironic that this setting works this way: one is purely militaristic, and the other is strictly educational.     So, yes, I'm at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, for a media fellowship program. As a Duke Media Fellow, we attend special seminars about media and democracy, led by Duke University faculty, leading journalists and guest lecturers. We will also be able to attend regular Duke University classes and work with faculty and staff to pursue independent projects. It is a great opportunity to learn from other fellows about media challenges in the US, France, Germany, South Africa, and Georgia. For more information about this program, please visit this website for this program.

The title may a little surprise you. You may ask yourself, what happened to Nasim that he ended up prison in Berlin. Maybe you will think that he is suspected of something because he comes from a country that provides 95% of opium to the world, and plus, there is a war going on. I am in Kabul now, this post had to be posted already, but it was missing somewhere my computer. I was invited by the GTZ as a photographer for a photography workshop on November 7 to 14. There were six other photographers from other countries; Jodi Bieber from South Africa, Dörthe Boxberg from Germany, Stefan Erber from Germany, Elena Koktanek from Germany, Michael Tsegaye from Ethiopia, Leonel Vasquez from Colombia and two workshop leaders: Ralf Bäcker and Jörn Neumann from Germany. Before going to the workshop in Berlin I had been in Italy where i received my freedom of expression award from Information Safety and Freedom (ISF) in Siena . The workshop subject was “Developing security and security d...

It is a bit funny to see myself in this clip. It just made me to laugh, I can't believe what I was telling to Mario Forenza, the Interviewer. By the way, i am trying to do video podcasting but I still challenge with myself how to overcome on my shyness. By the way, you can also download the movie from here .

This post is written Philippe R. in Courrier International , you can read this in original version in French language . My friend Jean-Baptiste Perrin translated into English. --- With his personal blog Afghan Lord , Nasim Fekrat, 25, is a real fighter. His country Afghanistan has been on the front page of Western and foreign media for so many years, at the heart of what is called "the fight against international terrorism." In Kabul, Nasim fights too. With his own weapons and for a cause much braver and more difficult: freedom of expression. Nasim Fekrat is an Afghan journalist, internationally recognized for his blog Afghan Lord that exists in English and Farsi . In 2005 already, Reporters Without Borders has awarded him its first prize to reward his work, his courage, his commitment. Afghan Lord is currently competing for the best South Asia blog 2008 awarded by the Brass Crescent Awards , oriented towards the Muslim world's blogosphere. Most recently, Nasim ...

I appreciate you a lot for supporting me to receive Honorable Mention in the Fifth Annual of the Brass Crescent Awards in 2008 . I received this prize in the category of Best South Asian Blog as Honorable Mention and it means a lot for me. I would like to thank Jeffrey Stern and Javaid Zirak who supported me and thank from all of you. This really give me hope and encourage to be updated. I salute Brass Crescent people and their spirit and innovation. Just to add this that i think you all have seen that I tend to gravitate toward enlightening and more a voice from inside a wounded land, a forgotten land and horror land (for many), of course there is always not only horror but also love, trust, honesty and culture which i like to write you. I don’t like to be too negative but also remember that i don't born optimistic too. My childhood story is scaring, i born in the time of war and you can understand what means that. Oh, and by the way, i owe you much!

The video is taken by Pino Scaccia from the Award Ceremony in Siena. At the end of the video you can see me at the corner. The women in the Burqa are a group who perform widely in Italy.

I had to write and publish this piece sooner but I couldn't because of hectic schedule. Now, I have to tell you to everyone why I became an award winner for the freedom of expression by ISF (Information Safety and Freedom) in Siana, Italy. On Friday morning, November 28 in Siena , in Tuscany region, the award for the freedom of expression given to two Afghan journalists. I also got Kambakhsh's award. It was painful for me to receive my award while the other winner Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh is still in prison only for reading an article in the internet. Many of you may ask me that why you became the award winner while there were many journalists who were fighting for the freedom of speech, even some of them lost their lives, some of them exiled and some of them beaten and harassed by local warlords and drug lords. I am awarded because my satire/cartoon magazine was shot down in 2004, I am awarded because I got several death threats and exiled for seven months. I am award for my ...

George Bush, Jacques René Chirac, and Hamed Karzia the president of Afghanistan die and they all go to hell. The devil sees their faces and asks: 'why are you so depressed?' Bush says 'I left USA so fast, I did not have time to kiss my family and say good bye, I wish I could call home in Texas. The devil gives him a phone, Bush calls home, talks with his family. Bus gives a couple of instructions to Condoleza Rice... When he's finished, the devil asks for 2 million USD, Bush says: 'What? 2 million bucks? I only spoke for 10 minutes that's insane'. The devil answers 'but you are in hell man, that's some distance call!' Chirac then tells the devil: if Bush could call the USA, I want to call France! And so he did. When he is finished, devil asks for 3 million Euros. Chirac is shocked: 'what? 3 million Euros for 15 minutes talk?', 'well you call from hell...' answers the devil. Finally Karzai asks for the telephone to call Afghanista...

Today, on the way coming to Berlin, I was reading USA-Today in plane from 5 December about Condolleza Rice’s meeting in Islamabad about Mumbai case. This report was saying, Rice satisfied with Pakistan’s readiness to peruse lead in the attacks in India that have sharply raised tensions between the two nuclear power. It is really funny to hear that after her talks with Islamabad, Pakistani leaders is committed to the war on terror and does not want to be associated with terrorism. The funniest part is that when Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari told to Rice that the attack were a chance to strengthen efforts against terrorism in his country and promised to take “strong action”. Once again, look at this sentence: “Asif Ali Zardari told to Rice that the attack were a chance to strengthen efforts against terrorism in his country and promised to take “strong action”. As Afghan who is living in Pakistan neighborhood which is directly affected by its extremism and radicals Muslim groups, fo...

I just came back from L'Aquila , the capital of Abruzzo region. Today, there was a photo exhibition and one of my Photos was also exhibited among 50 photos from different photographers there. The association which called themselves “ the Cultural Association “L’Idea di Clèves” was born and developed in the provincial reality of L’Aquila ” organizes this competition every year. This year they had two categories, prize for online competition and the one which jury had to choose among 200 pictures. The photo which was selected by the jury was a red lip and with white face and side red colored. I didn’t understand why the jury selected this picture as the winner as I found lot of great shots there. I have doubt nepotism is so strong and influenced here in Italy. I am tired, my domain kabuli.net is expired and my kabuli.org is still not working, it was hacked before and a few days before the data moved to a new server but the DNS is not fixed I don’t know why. I wrote several times to ...

My Farsi blog was hacked once by someone who called himself Aljera7, Saudi hacker but this time it is worse. I don't know what is going wrong with the host and my blog. The only thing i have access is the domain kabuli.org which is registered with aplus.net but my blog which was hosted with Hostiran.net, since five days i don't have access to it nor i have the info login. Just a few days before this happen, i was receiving the below message periodically but i ignored because i was thinking that they want to steal my password. But when i saw my account was suspended and the host gave me this reason which they received similar e-mail that i did. I don't know who should feel responsible, the host instead to solve the problem and feel responsible to provide security, they blocked my account. Please let me know if you can help me with this i am getting mad. Read the below message which caused to block my account. HIS IS AN URGENT MATTER Hello, I work for and represent Westpac B...

Afghan LORD has been nominated under the “ BEST SOUTH ASIAN BLOG ” category for the Fifth Annual Brass Crescent Awards in 2008. It would be great if you vote for your humble Afghan blogger. How to vote? Please browse the Brass Crescent page and go to the bottom of the page, look at the second category from down, there you can find Afghan Lord, you have to click where to select the blog then go to the lowest page, enter your e-mail address, before you have to tick mark this option: " I certify that I am only voting once for the Brass Crescent Awards ". Finally click to submit your vote. Check your inbox, an approval will be send to your e-mail address with a link, in order to complete and your vote submitted please click on the link. Voting Directions: Use the form below to select one nominee from each category. We will ask you for your email address to confirm your vote, but don't worry - we will discard your email address after votes have been tallied. What is the Bra...

I was really worry for the last 48 hours because the hosting blocked my account and the host service was Iranian. I am always afraid of reality and this time i had doubt would have my data back. Thanks for your supporting and thanks for my friend Roohollah who was enthusiastically striving to revive back my Farsi blog . Thanks for Esra and all friends of who had concern on this issue.

I am quiet excited now, the prize for freedom of expression will be given to me today in Siena , it is early morning and i am in Athena Hotel in Siena. The ceremony will be started at 11, so I should get ready sooner. Last night i slept at 2:00AM, it is 6:30am now but I have to shave and have my breakfast very soon. Last night we were invited by ISF (Information and Safety for Freedom). I was excited to hug my great friend Pino Scaccia last night. There are 6 Afghan students, five female and one male who are also invited to this ceremony. Emal Naqshband the brother of Ajmal Naqshbandi who was beheaded by Taliban in 2006 is also in the group. Will write you more about this in next posts

------ A young man who was repatriated from Turkey while he was intend to cross the border to reach Europe. After spending several months in prison in Turkey he repatriated to Iran border and Iranian police border caught him and put him jail. After 6 months he repatriated to Afghanistan. He became addicted in Iran and now he is in Russian Cultural Palace among hundreds of other addicts who wriggling with their wounded bodies in the darkness of corridors. These addicts who are staying inside the Russian Cultural Palace told that they became addict while they were in Iran and working. According to the most recent UN figures in 2005, there are about one million addicts in a country of about 30 million people, one in 30 Afghans are addicts.

-------- It is not easy to meet Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh in prison. He is condemned because of blasphemy and any one who dares to meet him, has the perspective of being questioned or followed by police man, inside the prison. "Visitors who are visiting Kambakhsh will be followed by police because they are controlling Kambakhsh's relations outside of the prison". I was already told that by a friend of mine, who is a police officer. It was almost 11:00AM, at least one hour left to meet the prisoners; I had to meet Parwiz Kambakhsh to let him know that he is the winner of the Freedom of Expression award in Italy. Standing in line for minutes where hundreds of people waited just the same to meet their relatives, imprisoned. At the gate of the prison a police man with a board marker signed visitor's hands, next door the visitors have to deliver their mobiles phones and knives. Before approaching the meeting room for the prisoners, there are two check points, one where stamp...

------ As some of you may know that I came in Italy. Right now I am in Turin and last night was one of the first programs which were scheduled, the rests are in coming week. Last night’s program was organized by the mayor of Almese “Bruno” and Valeria, Ignazio, Silvia and Meri who doesn’t like her name appear here. I appreciate them deeply for the efforts they did. Lots of questions rose, among the questions a teenage girl asked me: “Why Taliban don’t allow children to go to school”. This is question that even Afghans couldn’t find the answer; it’s like unanswerable question for us because we can’t find the reason why Taliban burn the schools, killing the teachers, burning the books, very recently men squirted the acid from water bottles onto three groups of students and teachers walking to school in Kandahar. The only thing I remember to answer to this teenage girl “Francesca” was they don’t like the children go to school to study science but religious school to train the new generati...

------ Today, early morning when I opened the news pages on Internet, I read "Obama became the next president of USA" I became excited and suddenly stood and shouted. I couldn't control myself and I said "Greeting Obama! Oh great man in which the dream of Martin Luther King became true now. The people who were close to me they laughed at me but I couldn't control myself, while I was shedding tears I came out from the net café. When I arrived home I wept fully, but tears from happiness. However I don't believe to pray but I was praying for him to win, this was my hope and today I am the witness that my hope turned real. Obama is the one who wants to change. He turned the dreams of millions of people to reality, millions of people who were hoping fall off the walls. Now, he is the winner and turned into the hero of his nation and the people in his country. He is the one who said, once there was a great man in US history who told his people: "I have a drea...

------- This is the picture of our young people, our noble children. I am proud of them, two days working with them i believe they are so strong to stand up against enemy, against Taliban and strangers who are against our nation. I am so glad and proud today to see the National Army of Afghanistan getting so strong. Before Mujaheddin and starting civil war, Afghanistan had the most powerful Army. This is was a threat to neighboring countries. As i see and the interests among people who are joining to army day by day i am sure that they will be strong again.

------- From The Guardianweekly Despite decades of civil war, marauding Taliban and deadly military air strikes, Afghans have experienced some changes for the better over recent years. Health facilities, schools and roads have improved, and a fledgling media industry is finding its feet. Bloggers are off to a fast start, with Nasim Fekrat , also known as Afghan Lord, leading the way. This 25-year-old ethnic Hazara knows all too well the dangers of self-expression, but believes freedom of speech is vital if Afghanistan is to leave its bloody past behind. Friday October 17th 2008 Signs of change are visible across Afghanistan. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images When I was 11 years old my father pushed me to pray and I would not pray. One night my father raised his hands to the sky and said: "Please god, take Nasim. Kill him, take him back – I don't want him." He did this in front of me and my siblings and nobody said anything. That evening I couldn't sle...

------- It was expected that the result of the last appeal court would be acquittal for Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, but against all expectations the judge of the court sentenced him for 20-years in prison. This sentence was issued but the court didn’t mention directly the accusation of distributing an article on women's rights on the Internet which was said to be blasphemous. Seyed Parwiz Kambakhsh, arrested a year ago, was first sentenced to death by a court in Balkh. The interesting point for the last trial was the statement of the Balkh University teachers, as witnesses telling to the court that “Parwiz Kambakhsh was trying to disturb the lessons in the class, by questioning about Islam”. His friends have been denying about the supposedly blasphemous article and its distribution by Kambakhsh, but one of his classmates told the court that he had seen the blasphemous article with Kambaksh. Regarding the witnesses at the last trial and the long term delay by the courtjudge, the judge n...

-------- … The fear starts when you feel you are someone, specifically when every one of us feels that we are important, for ourselves. But today when we flew from Kabul to Bamyian with a USAID Helicopter, we reached Maidan Shahr, the area that is strongly influenced by Taliban. The helicopter slowly started rising, and the passengers, all journalists, seemed worried. I don’t know, or may be it was only me having fear. Fear of becoming a victim of some guided missile which recently the Taliban are equipped with. It will not be a surprise to hear that the Taliban are equipped with such a missile. Just a few weeks ago, there was a deadly US helicopter crash caused by a stinger guided missile in southern Afghanistan. As you will remember, our USA friends had equipped the Afghan warriors “Mujahideen” with their latest weapons in the times of the holey invasion of the Soviet Union. And today these guided missiles are used against US forces in Afghanistan. In 2005, in a report at RTA...

--------- Today is the seventh year that we celebrate Ahmad Shah Massoud 's ceremony. He was a powerful commander for the Jamiat Islami party and the Northern alliance. Massoud was one of the most famous commanders who fought against the Soviet Union. Later, when the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, Massoud turned his guns' target to his fellow citizen in order to get power in the country. Today is a holiday and a respective day for his ceremony. In this ceremony, all the Northern alliance commanders are gathering in the Ghazi stadium to celebrate him and talk about his bravery and resistance against the Soviet Union and the Taliban. But here in the western part of Kabul where I live, people are busy with their daily works, the shops are open and we can hear the music from each corner as usual as always. There is a reason why people are not interested and rather and thoughtless about this day, because in the time of the civil war they have suffered from this commander wh...

-------

------- Here is an interview with me in Liberazione newspaper for the communist party in Italy . The interview is translated from English to Italian Language, you can find in this link. Also you can read it in Mauro Biani's blog, he is an Italian famous cartoonist. You can also find information about this newspaper here which is translated by google I appreciate Mauro who worked on this interview to be published in Liberazione.

------- The security situation is deteriorated rapidly in the recent days. The rocket attack on Afghan capital airport indicates that the Taliban insurgents broken the entrance stability security gates towards Kabul . This means, Taliban are really close to capital nowadays. Horror is spreading fast among the people; the residents of Kabul are really worry what will happen in the next coming weeks. Yesterday around 10:30AM there was a heavy conflict between Taliban insurgents and Afghan security forces in Surobi Tangi area ( Kabul Province , Surobi District, Kabul-Jalalabad main road) Additional security forces have been dispatched to the area. As I informed, the clash is still going on since yesterday. Also, yesterday three female aid workers for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and their Afghan driver were shot dead by gunmen who opened fire on their vehicle near the capital Kabul .

-------- I am in Kabul now. Over the last few weeks I was in Hamburg , Germany , for a Summer school on freedom and responsibilities in media. What a wonderful occasion and what wonderful people from 18 countries who I’ve met there. I miss all of them now and the only thing that remains with me are memories and pictures. If this course was held in Kabul , it might not have been so successful and interesting. In Germany I had to learn every step, I had to learn about the people, cities and culture. I came back with lots of information and memories that I am now sharing with my friends who are coming to meet me. One of the topics we had to work on was ‘dealing with the past’. Working with 8 people from different countries in one group on how we can deal with the past is not such an easy job. In most cases, it is taboo to write about the past, or it might not be so secure, or even dangerous. In a situation like Afghanistan, it is very difficult to write about criminals and the warlord...

------- I wrote this here already It seems that bloggers always looking for bloggers. It happened for me when I heard about Stefen Niggermeier, a famous media journalist and blogger. I was very interested to meet a successful German blogger. His blog is called BILDblog , it observes and takes the role of a watchdog in regard to the largest newspaper in Germany, the tabloid “BILD”, as it regularly points to errors in the paper. His blog received several prizes. Having dinner and chatting with him and asking him about why he became a blogger was an interesting moment. Stefan believes the best way to practice free speech and to write is blog. “In your blog you don’t have to be worried about the text length, you don’t have to consider the editorial advice and those principals which are asked normally from the editor of the newspaper”, he said. Mr. Niggermeier also shared his experience in blogging: “Blogging is easy, just start, if you have word, just put it together and work in a specifi...

-------- By Jeffrey Stern Minutes into Afghan President Hamid Karzai's speech before the Afghanistan Donor Conference in Paris, he congratulated his country on its "independent media," which, having "grown exponentially" since the ouster of the Taliban, is a harbinger of Afghanistan's imminent rise to respectable statehood. With a fresh infusion of development dollars, no doubt, Karzai could build on the thriving infrastructure, cultivate a legitimate civil society, educate girls, smoke out the extremists, and generally rid the world of its turbaned bogeymen. Not everyone buys that. Though the telecom infrastructure in Afghanistan is growing at a pace that exposes confounding contrasts—kids download videos on mobile phones while their houses lack electricity for much of the day—the mainstream press hasn't grown up as fast. Given expanding access to eyes and minds, the national press isn't as sophisticated as it could be. "Fekrat's facial f...

----------- Already published here Under the auspices of Association of Afghan Blog Writers , the second round on blogging workshop was held for tens of Afghan journalists and writers in ancient city of Bamyan . This workshop was underway from June, 12 to June, 15. First workshop of this series was previously held by the Association of Afghan Blog Writers in Kabul for journalists, university faculties, students and teachers. Two Western and three Afghan teachers participated in the latest round of blogging workshops. Mr. Martin (German journalist), who was supposed to teach on the first day of the workshop, unfortunately failed to do so due to illness. On the second day, the first hours were dedicated to theoretical issues, in which Mr. Jeffrey Estern (a young American journalist) approached the weblog phenomenon from a Western and modern-world perspective. Mr. Jeffrey compared visual and print media with blogging and evaluated the influence of blogging on public opinions, politics...